It’s been a week since the fasting began and it isn’t actually going that bad.

When I was a smoker I must admit the fasting was difficult.

But now it sems a bit of a breeze.

The strangest sight in the world now is those people who, having gone without a cigarette for 16 hours, hurry to light on up as soon as the sun sets.

Is there any point? Wouldn’t it be more intelligent to quit altogether?

You have done the hard bit.

And why on earth would anyone have two cigarettes when the fast breaks?

I have also noticed there are a fair few people who snap at others for no apparent reason.

It’s like road rage but you aren’t actually in a car and there’s this hollow look about the person.

This, I feel, seems to be defeating the whole purpose of fasting.

Okay, even the most patient among us must be getting a little ratty at around sixish but what I saw at the supermarket recently was totally out of order.

There seemed to be a scuffle over who got to the trolley first. Voices were raised and words were said... in several different languages.

Let’s blame it on the lack of caffeine and sugar, shall we.

Then there is the constant need for attention and sympathy.

I spoke to several people who decided they couldn’t work so stayed at home during Ramadhan because ‘it was too dificult’. Or spent the whole early evening asleep. If it’s that bad, then don’t fast in the first place.

My week has been only interrupted by the constant questions of my five and three year olds.

It is not until you spend full days with your children that you realise why the wife goes a little crazy when you get home from work. She, by the way, is away for a couple of weeks.

It is an enjoyable experience all round but there are moments when you kind of want that someone up there to stop testing you.

I don’t know what it is about that age, but for some reason they want to question absolutely everything. And unless you answer that question there is no respite.

I have answered a hell of a lot of questions in the past week and still I find myself at a loss.

Fast or no fast, the latest one left me speechless. ‘Daddy, why are there more green things in the world than blue?’